Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Counting American citizens on the 2020 Census, as President Donald Trump’s administration has announced they will do, is likely to shift power away from coastal states harboring large illegal alien populations and towards middle America.

The addition of the citizenship question to the Census does not come with the mandate that congressional apportionments for each state will be based on the number of citizens, rather than entire populations, including citizens, noncitizens, and illegal aliens.

Down the road, though, should Congress choose to apportion congressional districts based on the number of citizens rather than the entire districts’ population, states with large illegal alien populations would likely lose a few congressional districts, while states with few illegal aliens could gain districts.

CLICK MAP to ENLARGE

For example, California has an estimated three million illegal aliens, a total of about 5.3 million noncitizens, and a total population of about 39.5 million residents. Currently, California has 53 congressional seats, the most in the country.

If California’s congressional districts were set by the number of citizens in the state, it would potentially lose three to five congressional seats, leaving the state with about 48 to 50 seats.